Sour Cream Kuchen

After my father-in-law passed away seven years ago and my mother-in-law went into assisted living shortly after that, the hubby and I cleaned out their entire house to get it ready to sell.  One of the things I made sure didn't get thrown away were some old cookbooks and a big binder full of recipes and newspaper clippings that belonged to my mother-in-law.  She was of Slovak descent and my father-in-law had a Slovenian background, so she would make ethnic dishes such as kolache, potica (nutroll),  golumpki (stuffed cabbage), stuffed peppers and pierogi.  A few months ago, I found her handwritten recipe for Sour Cream Kuchen. Kuchen is a German word for cake.  I don't know if she had any German relatives, but somehow she acquired this recipe. This recipe has cinnamon (which right away caught my eye)!!  She had written down a tablespoon of cinnamon for the topping, which seemed excessive (even for me),  so I changed it to two teaspoons.  The original recipe also had chopped nuts, which neither of my kids will eat, so I left those out.  I entered this recipe in a "recipe of the month" contest in a local publication and it won for the month of May! My mother-in-law passed on almost a year and a half ago.  I like to think she would have liked that her recipe won a contest :) 

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine (softened)

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups white flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

Topping: 


1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream margarine and sugar until smooth with electric mixer or by hand with a large spoon. Add eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sour cream. Mix well.

In separate bowl, make topping by mixing together brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon. Pour half of the batter into an ungreased 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Cover with one half of the topping. Add remaining batter and cover with remaining topping. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool about 15 minutes.